Latvia's main political parties were running neck- and-neck in opinion polls Friday, a day ahead of parliamentary elections that officials hoped would run smoothly. "All election materials have been prepared and distributed," dpa quoted the chairman of the Latvian Central Election Commission (CVK), Arnis Cimdars, as telling the Baltic News Service. More than 1,000 polling stations have been set up in Latvia and at overseas embassies to allow around 1.5 million eligible voters from Latvia's total population of 2.2 million can register their choices. In a first for Latvia, polling stations will be monitored by more than 200 "citizen observers" from the general public, as well as official observers from such bodies as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has a 12-person team in the country. The citizen observers have undergone special training, and they will be empowered to monitor the entire election process, from sealing ballot boxes to counting votes. "Including citizen observers in the election process ... should be used more widely in the Baltics and beyond," said Sergey Snegirov, chief executive of the Latvian company Intea, which devised the training in cooperation with the CVK. Polls open at 0500 GMT on Saturday and close at 1700 GMT, with preliminary results expected in the early hours of Sunday morning. The latest opinion polls suggest the result will be a close one, with incumbent Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis' Vienotiba (Unity) bloc battling the opposition Saskanas Centrs (Harmony Centre) party. An opinion poll by the Latvijas Fakti organization on Thursday predicted 28 seats for Saskanas Centrs and 22 seats for Vienotiba in the 100-seat parliament or Saeima. As a result much attention will focus on smaller parties, which are likely to hold the balance of power when forming a government. Election law means local media are now barred from reporting on the election or releasing opinion poll data until polls close. Key issues include how to revive the Latvian economy, which contracted 18 per cent in 2009, and how to handle the country's 7.5-billion-euro (10-billion-dollar) international bailout loan.
